FINA released the competition schedule for the upcoming 2022 World Championships in Budapest on Wednesday, less than a month after the international governing body announced the addition of the championships in early February.
The most noteworthy change to the calendar is that pool swimming, which traditionally runs during the second week of the competition, will now take place during Week 1.
The pool swimming competition will run from Saturday, June 18 until Saturday, June 25, with diving running from Sunday, June 26 until the following Sunday, July 3. The two premier aquatic events of the competition have previously been held in opposite spots in prior championships.
FINA said it decided to move swimming to the opening week after consulting with athletes and other key stakeholders.
“FINA and event organizers placed special consideration for the training and recovery challenges of a busy 2022 aquatics calendar and decided to have swimming take place during the first eight days of the event, rather than the customary second half of the event,” the organization said.
As for the swimming schedule itself, there will be one major change that sees the men’s 400 IM moved up to the opening day of the competition. The men’s 400 IM has traditionally been contested on the last day, along with the women’s 400 IM (which remains in that spot).
The men’s 400 IM is notably in that slot on the opening day of competition on the Olympic schedule.
The rest of the event schedule remains unchanged from 2019.
Start times are also included, showing that prelims will run at 9:00 am local time in Budapest for every session and finals will be at 6:00 pm. That translates to 3:00 AM ET prelims and 12:00 pm ET (noon) finals.
See the full schedule below:
There’s also been an alteration to the open water schedule.
Previously, FINA ran the 5km and 10km open water events, followed by an off day, and then the relay and concluding with the 25km. The new schedule leads off with the relay, then has the 5km, off day, 10km, and then the 25km.
See the open water schedule below:
not the world championship change we asked for fina
“Start times are also included, showing that prelims will run at 9:00 am local time in Budapest for every session and finals will be at 6:00 pm. That translates to 3:00 pm ET prelims and 12:00 am ET (midnight) finals.”
The translated times should be 3am for prelims and 12 noon for finals, Budapest is 6 hours ahead of EST.
I guess we will never get to see what Bobby Finke could do in a 400 Free, because he prefers the 400 IM. Or what Kieran Smith could do in a 400 IM, because he prefers the 400 Free. Thanks, FINA!
Some swimmers really get screwed by the schedule. The 200IM and 200 back is a somewhat popular combo but they’re always in the exact same session at the Olympics and share some sessions at worlds.
My thought exactly. It’s like FINA does not want to see distance freestyle swimmers excel in multiple non-freestyle events. They could easily add a day to spread events out better.
They should´ve change the 1500 free and 200 free for the women. And maybe change a bit the 200 back – 200 IM on the olympics
Why should they change the 200-1500 free? That’s not a popular combo at all. I can’t think of anyone outside Ledecky who would have that double. Ideally they should separate events that have high crossover as much as possible, but those two don’t.
I always preferred the old WC schedule which had 400IM on the last day and 400FR on the first since it seems like these two events definitely have crossover potential (Hagino was elite in both events and who knows if Phelps may have attempted to go 9 for 9 in Beijing if the Olympic scheduling allowed it) more so than 400IM would conflict with anything that takes place on the last day anyways (50 BK/FR and 1500 FR).
Phelps definitely could’ve hit 3:40-3:41 in Beijing. His 400 free potential is such an interesting what if
He did set a goal of 3:39 for himself, and he was pretty close on his other goals — actually faster in the 2 free and 4 IM than his goals.
https://swimswam.com/beyond-the-8-golds-michael-phelps-goal-times-for-the-2008-beijing-olympics/
Hagino was also completely dead by the time he got to the 400IM. We will see faster times at WC with this schedule. Most of the greats never get the chance to post elite times in 400IM at WC. See Hagino and Lochte with Olympic PBs.
This is true. Lochte was on fire at 2011 WC when he won 200fr/bk/IM and 400IM, but he was “only” 4:07.1 in the 400IM (obviously still great, but not a lifetime best like in the other 3 events), because it came later in the meet.